Kim Kyu-sik

Kim Kyu-Sik, also spelled Kimm Giusic and Kimm Kiusic (Korean:김규식, Hanja:金奎植, January 29, 1881 – December 10, 1950), was a Korean politician and academic during the Korean independence movement and a leader of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Kim served in various roles in the provisional government, including as foreign minister, ambassador, education minister and finally as the vice president from 1940 until the provisional government's dissolution on March 3, 1947. Kim's nicknames included Yoosa(우사), Kummun(금문), KimSung(김성), and JukJeok(죽적).

Kim was born in Dongnae, now part of modern-day Busan. Orphaned at an early age, Kim studied with American missionary H.G. Underwood starting from the age of 6, taking the Christian name "Johann." He later traveled to the United States, receiving a bachelor's degree from Roanoke College in 1903 and a master's degree in English literature from Princeton University the following year.

After the post World War II liberation of Korea in 1945, he returned to his homeland to join in the formation of a newly independent state, which was then under the rule of the United States Army Military Government in Korea in the south and the Soviet Civil Authority in the north. Kim was favored by the American occupation leader John R. Hodge, who saw him and Lyuh Woon-Hyung as moderate leaders on the right and left, respectively. In September 1947, the United States and Lee Seung Man (이승만; 李承晩 – also known as Syngman Rhee) et al. pushed to move the Korean question to the newly created United Nations, which voted to allow for elections in the south despite the objections of southern nationalists such as Kim and Kim Gu as well as from the north's Interim People's Committee, who were opposed because of the non-participation of the North.[1]

After failed efforts to broker reunification in that year, he retired from politics. After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he was kidnapped and taken to the North; he reportedly died near Manpo in the far north on December 10.